By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

ARCHBISHOP Patrick Pinder said Thursday’s election of Pope Leo XIV marked a moment of joy for the Roman Catholic community in The Bahamas, calling it the beginning of a new chapter while affirming continuity with the Church’s global mission.

He spoke to reporters following the revelation that the new pontiff is former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, a native of Chicago who previously served as prefect for the Congregation of Bishops in Rome and held pastoral appointments in Peru. 

He noted the significance of Pope Leo’s diverse background and international experience.

“He was trained as a canonist. He’s a canon lawyer by training. He again went back to Peru, and he eventually became a bishop. Pope Francis made him a bishop at a diocese in Peru,” Archbishop Pinder said. 

“Eventually, he was brought to Rome to serve in the Congregation for the Clergy, and later on, he became the prefect for the Congregation of Bishops, which is responsible for preparing the nomination of bishops in most of the dioceses around the world. It is a joy for us to have him as our new pope.”

He said Pope Leo was the first pontiff from an English-speaking country since the 12th century, although he stressed that the new pope’s pastoral work extended well beyond the United States.

“While he is certainly an American by birth, I think that’s an aspect of his biography. I think, though, the total picture is much, much broader than that,” Archbishop Pinder said. “His experience of the bishop has been not in the United States, but in South America — in Peru — and also as the superior of the Augustinian order, which is an international order. He would have had a reach that was taking him around the world.”

When asked what Pope Leo’s election might mean for The Bahamas, Archbishop Pinder said it was too early to speculate but pointed to the standard ad limina meetings, during which bishops report to the pope on the state of their dioceses.

“One of the responsibilities we have as bishops is to have a meeting with the pope. Those are assigned. We call them the ad limina meetings, and certainly, in preparation for those meetings, we’ll have an opportunity to share our concerns and, of course, to hear what his views might be,” he said.

Archbishop Pinder added that every new papacy brings a new era for the Church, though he expected Pope Leo XIV to preserve the positive direction set by his predecessor.

“Every new nova is a new era for the Catholic Church. There’s no question about that,” he said. “I do believe that he certainly will embrace the best that Pope Francis had. I don’t think his pontificate will be a limitation of Pope Francis. The characters are very, very different. You can see that he doesn’t have the same kind of personality as Pope Francis, but I do believe that he certainly would bring forward the best of the previous pontificate.”

The Vatican announced Pope Leo’s election Thursday afternoon, following the second day of the papal conclave.